8 Months Old!

I feel like this month could also be nicknamed "the month my sweet Henry turned into a monster".  More on that later.  Since I was so late with his 7 Months post there isn't much to add to this one, just a little warning.

8 Months Old!!!

Henry's stats:

Weight: 8.64 kilos

Height: 69.3 cm

Head Circumference: 45 cm

Teeth:  2

What Henry's been up to:

Henry has definitely perfected his crawling.  In fact, he's so good that he is regularly crawling right through his pants.  He has literally crawled holes into the knees of at least 3 pairs of pants…and counting, I'm sure.

One of his newest moves, we like to call it "the bulldozer", is to put his head down and crawl as fast as he can.  He usually does this if he hears the bathroom door open.  He knows he has to make it in before the door gets closed.  He's also really started to play with his toys.  He loves to read books and look at the pictures.  He also really likes puzzles.  Mostly, he likes to eat the pieces, bang them together and try to eat the little handle thing in the middle of the piece - it's a lot harder than it looks!

Henry's also really into pulling up and standing.  He loves doors, too.   One of his new favorite things to do is to close the door between the kitchen and our bedroom while we're cooking dinner.  Then he stands there and makes faces at us.

It's pretty adorable and he really seems to enjoy himself!

Last month, Henry perfected his waving.  This month, it has been replaced with the "no no" finger and pointing.  He's kind of forgotten how to wave and if he meets someone new he usually ends up shaking his finger at them instead of waving hi.  He's also gotten really into pointing at things.  He is constantly pointing at something.

Here you can kind of see the pointing and finger waving.

Henry started making this new face, we call it his squinty face.  It's also accompanied by a cute sound that he makes.  It's pretty hilarious and he does this constantly to flirt with people.  He was charming quite a few people on our flights with this face.  That and the high pitched squeal he likes to make now.  Let me tell you…it can make your ears bleed!  It seems that his voice went from quiet to LOUD.  He loves to scream!  I'm sure our fellow airplane passengers loved his new voice just as much as we do.

Henry also loves to blow raspberries.  If I'm sitting on the couch, he'll crawl over to me, pull my shirt up and just blow raspberries on my belly.  The other night, he had been doing it for 5 minutes straight and then as soon as we tried to take a video he wouldn't do it anymore.  It's always like that, isn't it?  Kids!  Anyway, here's what we got (and ignore my squishy baby belly).

We have also been trying to incorporate foods with more texture into Henry's diet…it's not going so well.  He really doesn't like texture or chunks.  He appreciates his food smooth.  We keep trying anyway, but if he eats something that he doesn't like he tries to spit it out.  It's hard to get mad about him spitting food all over you when he looks so cute doing it.

This ended up being longer than I thought it would, but there's still more to talk about.  Henry's monster behaviors.  Don't get me wrong…for the most part Henry is a sweet, loving boy who will just crawl up to you and give you the biggest open-mouthed kisses ever.  However, sometimes in the middle of said, sweet, sweet kiss he will then bite the crap (sorry Mom) out of your lip!  He has drawn blood.  Henry also enjoys biting fingers and toes and bellies and anything else he can get his teeth on.  He also loves to, what we accurately call, "claw your face off".  I think every member of our family has proudly worn Henry claw marks somewhere on their body.  This isn't a cute, little, accidental scratch when he was jokingly playing.  This is full on curved fingers (hence the claw name), full power arm swinging action straight to the face "clawing your face off" move.  He doesn't just stop after one time either, but will continue to try to claw your face off until you physically remove him from your face.  I tell Hannes, nearly every day, that I am so glad he is not in daycare because I cannot even imagine the notes we would get from his teachers.  Today, Henry bit 3 children and then clawed the faces off of 2 more.  I'm really hoping that he grows out of these behaviors soon.  I have hope, he has quit biting my nipple when he isn't hungry.

What Mommy's been up to:

I won't talk about my weight, because it isn't changing.  Ugh!  I did finish knitting a baby blanket for Henry.  He really seems to like it.  I knit it out of Blue Sky Cotton yarn.  It's pretty expensive, but I found it for half price at a little shop in Sweden.  I am pretty much in love with this yarn.  It does shed, a little, but it is the softest yarn I have ever used.  Which is maybe why Henry enjoys his blanket so much.  The whole time I was knitting it he would crawl over and try to bite off chunks of the blanket.  I think that's his way of doing a thumbs up.

I am enjoying working.  I went back to work at the beginning of January and I am only working on Thursdays and Fridays…yay Swedish maternity leave!  I love that I have the flexibility to do that and I cannot imagine what my sister Jessie is going through working and having a 3 month old baby.  Maybe Parker is a better sleeper than Henry.  He just now is sleeping from around 11-4:30.  It is nice to get out of the house, have a reason to get dressed and talk to adults.  I am just helping with some science lessons with the cover teacher while another teacher is on maternity leave.  So, I don't have any planning to do and I'm not exactly teaching any lessons.  It really makes it an easier transition to going back to work.